Nina Khosla had dated Douglas Tarlow for two years.
By The American Bazaar Staff
WASHINGTON, DC: Veteran technology entrepreneur Vinod Khosla, the billionaire founder of Sun Microsystems and who runs Khosla Ventures in Menlo Park, California, is used to acquisitions and mergers, but little would he have envisaged that his family would be blackmailed, coerced to acquire nude photos of his daughter in exchange for money.
An expose by The Smoking Gun, from court documents they got their hands on, Douglas Tarlow, 27, the former boyfriend of Khosla’s daughter, Nina Khosla, 26, threatened her and her mother, Neeru Khosla, 59, over several years to buy the nude photos off him for $73,000, or else would release them on reddit and the web. And make Nina Khosla “the next Paris Hilton.”
Tarlow and Nina Khosla met at a product design program they were in at Stanford University and dated for two years, from 2008 to 2010. They even started a company called Lokho, a design firm for which Khosla registered a web site in mid-2009. During their relationship, Khosla “voluntarily took nude photos and video,” which she shared with Tarlow, according to an FBI agent.
The two maintained cordial relations even after they broke up, with she helping him get a job with a non-profit company, CK-12, run by her mother, Neeru Khosla, for an annual salary of $125,000.
Things turned ugly after Tarlow was fired from the company in 2012, after seven months on the job. Security was beefed up at the firm also after he allegedly spoke about guns to other employees and Neeru Khosla was frightened for her employees. She even offered to help him find another job. In May, 2012, Tarlow contacted her and told her that he was homeless and was owed money by the company.
Seven months after he’d been fired, Tarlow texted Nina Khosla a naked picture of her and wrote “shall I call you Paris?” “Expect to see those online in 24 hours,” he allegedly wrote in a follow-up text that included an additional three nude pics. “F–k you.”
He then also contacted Neeru Khosla with the nude photos, and threatened her that he would make her “the mother of the next Paris Hilton.”
Tarlow allegedly sought $72,000, which he claimed the Khoslas owed him for his work from the past. A message from Tarlow’s Gmail account directed Neeru Khosla to send the money to a P.O. box in Palo Alto. Tarlow also allegedly wrote to Nina Khosla, asking her, “Would you like to pay me on behalf of [the company]? Their balance is 73k.”
Tarlow, however, even claimed at one point that he was not the perpetrator and feigned innocence, when Nina Khosla demanded as to why he was threatening her mother.
In late 2012, the FBI swung into action after being contacted by the Khoslas, and through grand jury subpoenas sent to Verizon, Google, and Time Warner Cable, managed to establish that it was indeed Tarlow who was sending threatening texts and e-mails to the two women. However, Tarlow was not arrested at that time.
But Tarlow was unaware of the going on of the FBI, and again started his torture and blackmail of the Khoslas, when he contacted them in December last year, with the same threats of releasing the photos on the web.
In a text to Nina Khosla, Tarlow wrote that her mother “doesn’t keep her promises,” noting that “any option besides making you the next Paris would be preferred.” A second text to Nina warned, “some things once released to the world can never be removed.”
Tarlow was also in financial trouble, going by his text that said: “Money is such an unimportant thing except when one has none. Then it hurts not to have any.” Attached to the e-mail were “three nude pictures” of Khosla “provided to Tarlow during their relationship,” according to the FBI affidavit. Referring to Khosla’s mother, Tarlow also allegedly wrote, “guess we’ll have to see how [she] responds to those pictures? maybe it’ll shock her into doing the right thing.”
Tarlow’s last correspondence was to Neeru Khosla, on December 14th. He attached “a different nude picture” of her daughter, and asked, “Do you still want to buy these?’
The Khoslas had read and seen enough.
Tarlow was arrested last week and charged with extortion. He’s due in U.S. District Court in Northern California today.
1 Comment
how could she date someone for so long and not realize he was a sociopath after her money.
I hope he rots in jail. His poor parents thought that he was a good kid and probably proud that he is in Stanford. I hope she finds someone good that will respect her and truly love her